Ocasio-Cortez Suggests Palestinians ‘Have No Choice But to Riot’ Against Israel

'I don't think that by marginalizing Palestinians, you create safety'

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) agreed with a radio host's description of Israel's treatment of Palestinians as "criminal" during an interview Tuesday and suggested Palestinians had no recourse but violence.

On his hip-hop program "Ebro in the Morning," interviewer Ebro Darden said there was a collection of "corrupt" governments in Israel, the United States, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, "all working in concert," and referred to White House policy adviser Stephen Miller as a white supremacist.

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"How do you have white supremacist Jews?" he asked. "How do you have people like Stephen Miller? How do you have these individuals who are legit aligning with racism and white supremacy, but they're Jewish? And it's something that most people can't wrap their brains around. But it's a real thing."

Ocasio-Cortez, a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that has been called anti-Semitic by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), murmured her assent.

"And what's going on with Israel and Palestine, while it's very, very, deep, it is very, very, criminal, and it is very, very unjust," Ebro said.

"Absolutely," she replied. "And I think, too, where we're at as a country when it comes to Israel-Palestine is very much a generational issue."

Ocasio-Cortez characterized the Right as unfairly accusing her of being anti-Semitic for being critical of Israel.

"Criticizing the occupation doesn't make you anti-Israel, frankly. It doesn't mean that you are against the existence of a nation," she said. "It means that you believe in human rights, and it's about making sure that Palestinian human rights are equal to Israeli human rights, and there are a lot of troubling things happening there."

As she did when she opposed an anti-BDS resolution last week, she suggested Palestinians had no choice but to react violently when they were "marginalized."

"Jewish people have been persecuted throughout all of human history, but I don't think that by marginalizing Palestinians, you create safety," she said. "I believe that injustice is a threat to the safety of all people, because once you have a group that is marginalized and marginalized and marginalized—once someone doesn't have access to clean water, they have no choice but to riot, right? And it doesn't have to be that way."

She claimed after making that remark she wasn't talking about Palestinians but instead about poor American communities.

"Social destabilization is what happens when people do not have a plan or feel like there's no vision for their future," she said.

David Rutz is managing editor of the Washington Free Beacon. He was previously a sports reporter for two years in Atlanta and has done freelance sports reporting for the Washington Post. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2010 and lives in Marietta, Ga. His Twitter handle is @DavidRutz.